This invention relates to a beverage dispensing assembly and a method of dispensing beverage.
The applicant company produces and sells a professional draught beer system named DraughtMaster™ comprising a beverage dispensing system and a chill chamber in which the keg or pack containing carbonated beer is received. The keg or pack containing carbonated beer comprises a flexible bottle or bag, which is exposed to an elevated pressure from the outside for dispensing the beer. The flexible bottle or bag is connected through a dispensing line to a shut-off valve, which is ducted through a channel of the beverage dispensing system and is received in and operated by means of a tap handle of a tapping head housing for operating the shut-off valve between an open and a closed position, i.e. between a beverage dispensing position and a non-beverage dispensing position.
The international patent application WO 2001/092142 A1 discloses a drink dispenser assembly comprising a dispensing line and a shut-off valve. The shut-off valve comprises a first sleeve and a second sleeve which first sleeve is provided with an inlet to an upstream part of the dispensing line and an outlet. The second sleeve is provided with an inlet which interacts with the outlet of the first sleeve and with an outlet. Coupling means are arranged on one of the sleeves which can be moved by the coupling means between a flow position, in which the outlet of the first sleeve is in fluid communication with the inlet of the second sleeve, and a shut-off position in which the outlet of the first sleeve is closed off by the second sleeve.
In the applicant company's previously filed European patent application 07388021.3, publication no. EP 1 982 951 A1, published on 22 Oct. 2008, and similarly in applicant's previously filed international patent application PCT/DK2008/000140 claiming priority from the above-mentioned European patent application, a technique of joining a separate valve element to a sealed-off dispensing line, after the valve element and the dispensing line have been introduced into the tapping head housing as separate elements, is described as the joining is established the first time the tap handle of the tapping head housing is moved from its closed position to its open position.
A later international patent application PCT/EP2010/050692, published on the 5 August as WO 2010/086275 A1, describes a beverage dispensing assembly including a dispensing line and a valve element. The valve element comprises an upstream valve part, a flexible valve part and a downstream valve part. The downstream valve part includes a plug for sealing off a dispensing end of the dispensing line.
The present invention generally relates to the technical field of beverage dispensing assemblies for carbonated beverages including a dispensing line and valve parts cooperating with the dispensing line for opening and closing the dispensing line. In relation to carbonated beverages stored at elevated pressure, the sudden pressure drop between the elevated pressure upstream of the valve and the atmospheric pressure downstream of the valve may cause excessive foaming of the beverage. The foaming is caused by turbulence in the beverage flow in the valve which in turn is due to the high flow velocities generated by the pressure difference between the upstream part of the valve and the downstream part of the valve. The intensity of the turbulence is also depending on other factors such as the extent of stagnation paints in connection with location where the flow detaches from the surface of the valve. At such locations strong vortexes may occur which causes foaming.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved beverage dispensing assembly which minimizes the amount of foaming generated during dispensing.